1. The Field of the Invention
Exemplary embodiments of the invention relate to apparatus, systems, devices, and methods for feeding and guiding materials through a converting machine. More particularly, example embodiments relate an infeed system usable for feeding fanfold packaging materials into a converting machine that produces packaging templates from the packaging materials.
2. The Related Technology
The automating of processes has long been a goal of industrialized society, and in virtually any industry in which a product is produced, some type of automated process is likely to be used. Oftentimes, the automated process may make use of modern technological advances that are combined into one or more automated machines that perform functions used to produce a product. The product produced by the automated machine may itself make use of raw materials. Such materials may themselves be loaded, provided, or otherwise introduced into the automated machine using an automated process, or such loading may be manual. Particularly where the loading is performed using an automated process, the raw materials may be positioned near the machine to facilitate loading.
The packaging industry is one example industry that has benefited greatly in recent years from the use of automating technology. For instance, boxes and other types of packaging may be formed out of paper based products (e.g., corrugated board), and an automated machine may be programmed to use one or more available tools to perform a number of different functions on the corrugated board. When loaded into the packaging machine, the corrugated board may be cut, scored, perforated, creased, folded, taped, or otherwise manipulated to form a box of virtually any shape and size, or formed into a template that may later be assembled into a box. One example of such a converting machine can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 7,100,811, which is expressly incorporated herein by this reference, and which may use various laterally spaced paths, so that multiple lines of packaging templates can be individually or simultaneously produced. In effect, the converting machine starts with a raw form of corrugated board (e.g., fanfold corrugated board in one or more separate feed paths) and converts the raw form into a template form that may then be assembled into a box or other type of package.
A converting machine that produces packaging templates may thus produce the packaging templates only after the corrugated board or other packaging material is introduced into the machine. Conventional fanfold configurations use stacks of multiple layers of packaging material. Each layer is approximately the same size and has pre-existing fanfold score lines at each end to separate the layers and allow the fanfold material to stack on top of itself. Thus, the raw fanfold board may be stacked in a loading position proximate the converting machine.
To introduce the fanfold into the converting machine, conventional converting machines utilize an infeed wheel to draw the fanfold into the converting machine. Conventional infeed wheels correspond to the dimensions of the fanfold score lines. For example, fanfold material may have score lines that are forty-eight inches apart. Therefore conventional converting machines can use an infeed wheel having corners that are forty-eight inches apart. Such infeed wheels that match the length of the fanfold material are specifically designed to avoid creasing the layers of fanfold material between the score lines as the additional creases have been seen as reducing the aesthetic appeal of the produced box template, and possibly the structural integrity.
By limiting the size of conventional infeed wheels to correspond directly to the size of the fanfold material layers, the infeed wheels may have a large size. With the large infeed wheels, the stack of raw materials must be placed further away from the converting machine, thus creating a large machine footprint. With the large footprint, space is occupied that may otherwise be valuable and usable for other operations, and higher overhead clearance may be needed. Moreover, as conventional infeed guides are designed to use the pre-existing score lines on the fanfold, conventional infeed guides are designed with a large radius to accommodate the turning of the fanfold from the infeed wheel into the converting machine in a manner that does not cause the fanfold to fold or bend between the predefined score lines on the edges of the stack of fanfold. The conventional large radius design of infeed guide produces a larger overall size of the converting machine which, in turn, also requires more space. Furthermore, because of the large size, conventional infeed wheels are more expensive to produce as they result in higher material, handling and tooling costs, thus increasing the cost of the converting machine as a whole.
Because the stack of raw fanfold and the size of conventional infeed wheels can be set apart at some distance, there is also an increased chance of inattentive operators creating safety hazards in using the converting machine. For example, the space between the stack of fanfold and the converting machine may allow space for an inattentive operator to walk between the stack of fanfold and the converting machine. As the infeed wheel rotates to feed the fanfold material, the infeed wheel may rotate and strike the careless operator.
Additionally, where the size of the infeed wheel is generally the same size as the distance between scores in fanfold material, changing to a different size of fanfold material may result in a need to modify or change out the infeed wheel to correspond to the different size of fanfold material. For instance, the infeed wheel may have expandable and/or retractable corners that allow some variation in size, although large changes in size of fanfold material may require swapping out for a different infeed wheel, and both modification or replacement of a wheel may cause significant down-time for the converting machine. Furthermore, the size of conventional infeed wheels generally force the converting machine to be shipped disassembled, thus requiring a costly and burdensome assembly process after the converting machine arrives at a customer's site.
Also, during a converting process, a converting machines may partially back-out the fanfold material to create the various templates. Because of the large size of the conventional infeed wheels, there is a significant resistance to backward movement that can frequently cause a conventional converting machine to jam, thereby increasing downtime and operating costs. Accordingly, there exists a need for alternative infeed systems that are more efficient and less costly, and which are less prone to downtime and delay.